By Oral Ofori of TheAfricanDream.net
It's one minute past 3PM in Israeli local time and Bishop Kofi Adonteng Boateng is getting off the Austrian Airlines plane with some members of his Divine Word International Ministries (DWIM) congregation to begin [their Holy Land Tour http://www.theafricandream.net/bishop-adonteng-jerusalem-pilgrimage/].
The day is October 5, 2016. The late afternoon sun shines a warm welcome on the Bishop and other members of the DWIM that have joined him on this spiritual journey to Israel.
As passengers walk out of the plane, another one follows because a single flight was not enough to transport the over 150 members of the DWIM to Israel on their tour of the Holy Land. Like the Bishop, everyone else on the journey was about to experience Israel for the first time and it was obvious that each traveler had come with a purpose on this all important life mission.
When TheAfricanDream.net asked the Bishop how important this trip to Israel of his was, he said: "this is probably going to be one of the most important trips in my life and in that of the lives of almost everyone present. We intend to use our one week stay in Israel to have a personal encounter with Jesus Christ in a very spiritual way."
Bishop Kofi Adonteng Boateng further explain, "this tour of the Holy Land is not just a pilgrimage for us, it is an opportunity for each person here to have a one-on-one encounter with Jesus Christ by walking and praying in some of the very places he did and using the experience to positively change our lives and those connected to us."
Anyone making this tour with a clean heart and spirit is sure to end it with a strong feel of the manifestation of God in their respective lives the Bishop said. As TheAfricanDream.net talks to some of the travelers on the tour, it became obvious that they all share in the Bishop's faith.
These travelers have come from over 20 American States and beyond; some even journeying from places like mainland Canada, and European nations like Germany and the United Kingdom.
Both young and old were filled with excitement and mostly awe when observed by TheAfricanDream.net during their journey up the acropolis of Herodium which is sometimes referred to as the Herodion. This was the first stop in the one week Holy Land tour. It was an amazing sight to behold for all present on that day of October 6, 2016. This was in the area which is now the Palestinian West Bank.
Herodion; the fortified palace of King Herod the Great which is where he is also thought to be buried, prepared members of the Divine Word International Ministries for their next stop which was at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
Some members of the DWIM that talked to TheAfricanDream.net after their visit to the Church of the Nativity said they couldn't believe they just had the opportunity of their lifetime to actually set foot on such hallowed grounds, actually not far from the cave where Jesus Christ was born.
In all, it was such a life-changing-eye-opener for this writer too, who was on the trip purely for the purpose of covering it from a reporter's point of view. Words and photographs will forever not be enough to describe the feeling that locals and non-local alike have from visiting places in the Holy Land, especially those very spiritually attuned.
One thing remains clear, Bishop Kofi Adonteng Boateng and his DWIM will certainly be going into the 2016 record books for forming one of the largest African-Christian group to visit Jerusalem in Israel, and Bethlehem in Palestine. These cities are considered the holiest and oldest cities by two of the words most widely practiced religions on earth — Christianity and Islam.
His answer to why his church had to begin their tour in Palestine is a direct re-echo of the words of Yohanan Aharoni in his book; The Land of the Bible: "The history of any land and people is influenced to a considerable degree by their geographical environment... this is especially true for Palestine, a small and relatively poor country which derives its main importance from its unique centralized location at the juncture of continents and a crossroads for the nations."
Thus the Bishop believes Christians worldwide as a nation of believers in Christ should, if possible visit Palestine but always bear in mind the fact that Christ is always near, wherever you are, so long as your faith is pure and true.
To find out more about Bishop Kofi Adonteng Boateng and his DWIM click here: http://www.theafricandream.net/i-am-no-angel-bishop-kofi-adonteng-boateng/
